System and method for selecting and delivering ads based on cross-platform activity

ABSTRACT

A cross-platform advertising system utilizes viewing data, browsing data, and telephone call data to establish subscriber account profile and, optionally, user profiles for users at the subscriber account. An ad selection processor selects ads based on subscriber account profile and, optionally, the user profile. An ad delivery processor delivers the selected ads to a device associated with the subscriber account.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation application of application Ser. No.11/955,758 filed Dec. 13, 2007. The Ser. No. 11/955,758 is incorporatedby reference herein, in its entirety, for all purposes.

BACKGROUND AND SUMMARY

Historically, Internet services, telephone services, and televisionprogramming services have been provided by different service providers.The revenue model of each of these service providers was servicespecific.

With the increasing use of digital technologies to provide telephone,high speed data and television programming services, the distinctionsbetween the services have blurred. For example, a cable system operatormay provide all three services over a largely digital pipe.

A major source of revenue for cable system operators is the sale oftelevision advertising time, both locally and nationally. The price ofan advertisement slot is based on the popularity of the programming inwhich that slot is provided.

Advertisers have typically attempted to maximize the return on theiradvertising investment by targeting specific viewer segments that arelikely to be most receptive to the commercial message embodied in theadvertisements. One of the most widespread and simplest ways oftargeting viewers involves identifying what types of viewers mostcommonly view specific television programs. For example, it may be foundthat sports programming is viewed by a segment of the population thatincludes a large group of persons who are likely to purchaseautomobiles. In another example, it may be found that a news program isviewed most frequently by persons who are more interested in investmentservices than the public at large.

Advertisers offering goods or services that coincide with the interestsof the viewers of a particular program are usually willing to pay apremium for advertising time associated with that program. Accordingly,broadcasters have a financial incentive to provide programming that iseasily associated with specific segments of the viewing population andto facilitate the identification of the profiles of viewers.

Another method of targeting specific viewing audiences involvesselecting advertisements according to the geographical region in whichthey are to be broadcast. Frequently, viewers in one local or regionalarea may be more likely to be receptive to an advertiser's message thanviewers in a different area. For example, some advertisements arepresented by businesses operating in a limited geographical area.Accordingly, advertising success and the advertising revenues receivedby broadcasters can be maximized when different advertisements may bebroadcast to different geographical areas.

However, even with the widespread practice of targeting viewers based ontelevision programming content and the practice of geographicallydifferentiating advertisements, viewers who are likely to bedisinterested in the goods or services offered by advertisersunavoidably constitute a large percentage of the viewing population. Forexample, even though it may be found that viewers of sports programmingare collectively more likely to purchase automobiles, a large number ofindividual viewers in this segment of the viewing population simply arenot interested in such purchases. Likewise, while viewers of newsprograms may be more interested as a whole in investment services thanthe general public, a large number of such viewers belong to age oreconomic segments of the population that traditionally do not make useof investment services. In view of these and many other examples,conventional methods and systems for targeting advertisements tospecific groups of viewers are inefficient.

Profiling viewers based on viewing habits may improve the likelihoodthat a viewer is interested in a particular product or service. However,viewing data alone may not be the best indicator of a viewer's currentinterests or needs.

The cable industry is rapidly embracing “cross-platform services.” Across-platform service utilizes a feature provided on one platform (suchas voice) to offer a feature on another platform (such as video). Thus,displaying caller ID information on a video display is a cross-platformservice—a voice element crossed to a video service. Another example isthe programming of a DVR via a web page—a data element crossed to avideo service.

Providing data, voice and video services to subscribers has itschallenges. For example, billing systems must accommodate differingrevenue models and customer services departments must be trained tohandle customer support issues across a wide range of devices. However,the provision of services over differing platforms also provides a cablesystem operator with a wealth of information regarding the interests ofsubscribers. In an embodiment, subscriber viewing data is correlatedwith Internet browsing data and/or telephone calling data to produce asubscriber account profile that is used to select advertisementstargeted to devices associated with a subscriber account. In anotherembodiment, e-mail configuration data is used to refine the subscriberaccount profile to create user profiles.

DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 illustrates an advertising system according to an embodimenthereof.

FIG. 2 illustrates a process using a cross-platform advertisementdelivery system according to an embodiment hereof.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

For the sake of clarity, the following terms have the meaning ascribedto them:

Non-video content—content delivered to a subscriber via CPE other than adevice primarily configured to provide video content to a television ortelevision monitor.

Video content—content delivered to a subscriber via CPE primarilyconfigured to provide video content to a television or televisionmonitor.

Video content segment—an identifiable unit of video content.

Browsing data—information relating to websites visited by users of acomputing device connected to the Internet via a network interfacedevice provided by the multi-platform service provider.

Viewing data—information relating to video content viewed by asubscriber, including the viewing history, viewing behavior, and viewingcontext of the subscriber.

Service recipient—recipients of services associated with a subscriberaccount.

Telephone calling data—information relating to calls placed to telephonenumbers over facilities provided by the multi-platform service provider.

FIG. 1 illustrates a cross-platform advertisement delivery system 100for use by a multi-platform system operator. For example, theadvertisement delivery system may be located within a headend of a cablenetwork (not illustrated) or in a remote location accessible to theheadend. However, this is not meant as a limitation. The multi-platformservice provider may be a cable network operator, a fiber networkoperator, or a wireless network operator.

In the illustrated embodiment, a multi-platform service providerprovides multiple services such as video services, high speed dataservices, including Internet connectivity services, and telephoneservices to a subscriber. A correlation processor 102 may receive userdata from a viewing datastore 120, a browsing datastore 124, and/or atelephone calling datastore 128. The correlation processor 102 utilizescorrelation software 104 to create a profile associated with asubscriber account and store the profile in profile datastore 106. Theprofile for a subscriber account may also include user profiles that arededuced from patterns in the viewing data, the browsing data and/or thetelephone calling data indicative of the interests of separate users.Correlation processor 102 may also draw upon subscriber billinginformation, demographic information, and any other identificationtechnique used to generate a profile of a subscriber or group ofsubscribers.

A video content selection monitor 140 provides real time video contentselection data to an ad selection server 108. The ad selection server108 may utilize any of the current video content selection data, thesubscriber account profiles and the user profiles to select ads to beconveyed to a particular device by ad delivery server 110.

Correlation processor 102 may receive viewing data from viewingdatastore 120. These data may include:

(a) the MAC address or other unique identifier associated with the CPE;

(b) the length of time a video content segment was displayed;

(c) whether the video content segment was watched to completion;

(d) a video content segment content type, as for example, anadvertisement, a drama, documentary, a comedy, a news program, a gamingprogram, a sports program, or a viewable overlay;

(e) a video content segment content classifier, as for example, romance,mystery, true-crime, nature, baseball, football, basketball, soccer,boxing, horse racing, NASCAR, or cricket;

(f) an intended audience classifier, as for example, children, family,or adult;

(g) the number of times the same video content segment is displayed onthe CPE over a period of time;

(h) the video content segment title (if applicable);

(i) video content segment metadata (i.e., particular actors, themes,plots, etc.); and

(j) trick play used during the video content segment viewing.

Where the multi-platform service provider is a cable service provider,the CPE may be a standalone set top box (STB). However this is not meantas a limitation. For example, a CPE performing the communicationfunctions of an STB may be incorporated into a cable-ready televisionwith the security and access functions performed by an external PCMCIAtype card. See, OpenCable™ Multistream CableCARD Interface SpecificationOC-SP-MC-IF-I02-040831. CPE may also be a system including a modem,processor, memory, and display (i.e., a personal computer) which is ableto retrieve, process, and display video content.

Viewing data may be gathered only for video content segments deliveredto a CPE for a minimum viewing time. In this way, channel surfing doesnot produce excess viewing data.

The correlation processor 102 may receive browsing data from browsingdatastore 124. Browsing data provide statistics of websites visited byusers of a computing device connected to the Internet via a networkinterface device provided by the multi-platform service provider.

For each such website, these data may include:

(a) the MAC address or other unique identifier associated with thenetwork interface device;

(b) the MAC address or other unique identifier associated with thecomputing device connected to the network interface device;

(c) the URL of the website;

(d) the URL of the pages on the website visited by the subscriber;

(e) a website content type, as for example, webstore, informationprovider, or search engine;

(f) a web page content classifier. The web page content classifier for awebstore may include the type of goods viewed, as for example, books,music, electronics and a sub-classifier indicative of a type of book,music or electronic device viewed on the computing device. The web pagecontent classifier for an information provider may include the type ofinformation provided by the site, as for example, medical, health,infant care, or dietary information. The web page content classifier fora search engine may include the search terms entered into the searchengine; and

(g) the number of times the same web site and web pages have beenvisited by the computing device.

A computing device may be a desktop or laptop computer, a web-enabledpersonal digital assistant, and a web-enabled cell phone.

The correlation processor 102 may receive telephone calling data fromtelephone calling datastore 124. Telephone calling data providestatistics of calls placed to telephone numbers over facilities providedby the multi-platform service provider. For each such telephone number,these data may include:

(a) the telephone number of the calling party;

(b) the telephone number of the called party;

(c) a business classifier relating to the called party telephone number,as for example, a food service, an insurance provider, a car dealership,a garden supply company, a hardware store, and an electronics store; and

(d) the number of times the telephone number was called;

(e) the geographic region of the called party which may be derived froman area or country code;

(f) if the called party is a subscriber of the MSO, their profileinformation.

The correlation processor 102 utilizes correlation software 104 toidentify patterns in the viewing data, the browsing data and/or thetelephone calling data indicative of the interests of recipients ofservices associated with a subscriber account (herein, “servicerecipients”). These interests are reflected in a subscriber accountprofile.

In one implementation of a multi-platform advertising system,correlation software 104 weighs user data from at least two sources toestablish a profile entry for a subscriber account profile indicative ofactual user interest. For example, the subscriber account profile wouldinclude a “sports” entry if the viewing data and either the browsingdata or the telephone call data also reflect an interest in sports. Ifan interest in sports is confirmed, the viewing data, the browsing data,and/or the telephone call data may be utilized to identify particularsports of interest to the service recipients associated with thesubscriber account.

A profile stored in profile datastore 106 identifies the interests ofservice recipients associated with a subscriber account based on theuser data processed by correlation software 104. In one implementationof a multi-platform advertising system, the interests of the servicerecipients are assigned an interest factor and an interest velocityfactor. The interest factor measures the overall interest of aparticular profile category relative to all other profile categories ofthe subscriber account profile weighted by the number of user datapoints obtained from collective usage data of the service recipients.The interest velocity factor measures the interest of the servicerecipients at a point in time. For example, an interest factor for asubscriber account profile may reflect a relatively low interest insports. The velocity factor may reveal that just before the Super Bowlor the NCAA basketball tournament, the interest of the servicerecipients in sports increases dramatically. Using these factors canthus allow sports-related ads to be selected and delivered to thesubscriber's household when the interest in sports is at its highest.

In one implementation of a multi-platform advertising system, thecorrelation software 104 identifies patterns in the viewing data, thebrowsing data and/or the telephone calling data indicative of theinterests of distinct users. The usage patterns may be used to predictwhen a particular service recipient may be utilizing a particularnetwork device associated with a subscriber account and connected to thenetwork of the multi-platform service provider. For example, for asubscriber account having two computers and a single CPE, a usagepattern may detect a strong interest in sports and in nature programs.The browsing data for one computer may indicate an interest in sportswhile the browsing data for the other computer may indicate little or nointerest in sports. Under these circumstances, the correlation software104 may deduce that there are two distinct users and create a profilefor each user. If the two computers are each configured with a separatee-mail client, the e-mail account information may be used to furtheridentify a user, associate that user with a user profile, and associatethat user with a particular computer.

Under circumstances in which a subscriber account profile includes userprofiles, the ad selection processor 108 may use the real time videocontent selection data provided by video content selection monitor 140to assume which user is currently viewing a particular video contentsegment and to provide an advertisement that is of interest to thatassumed user.

In another embodiment, the correlation software 104 identifies patternsin the viewing data, the browsing data and/or the telephone calling dataindicative of the interests of a first subscriber and the ad selectionprocessor 108 to provide an advertisement to a second unrelatedsubscriber that has a profile similar to that of the first subscriber.

Selected advertisements may be delivered to a CPE, a computing device,and/or a telephone. Ad delivery processor 110 is connected to both ahigh speed data interface and a video distribution interface. Anadvertisement that is selected for delivery to a computing device or atelephone is sent by ad delivery processor 110 to the high speed datainterface. For example, an advertisement may be sent to a computingdevice as a web page, an instant message, or an e-mail. An advertisementmay be played over a digital telephone when the telephone goes off-hook.The delivery of advertisements to their final destination may beaccomplished by various means known in the art. See, for example,commonly owned U.S. Pat. No. 7,111,314 issued to Urdang et al. on Sep.19, 2006, which patent is incorporated herein by reference for allpurposes.

An advertisement that is selected for delivery to a particular CPE issent by ad delivery processor 110 to a video distribution interface. Anadvertisement selected for display on a particular CPE may be insertedinto the video stream, stored locally on the CPE for insertion using atriggering protocol, or may be provided interactively to a subscriber bydisplaying viewer-selectable icons or cues during the presentation of avideo content segment.

FIG. 2 illustrates a process using a cross-platform advertisementdelivery system according to an embodiment hereof.

User data from a viewing datastore, a browsing datastore, and/or atelephone calling datastore are received at a correlation processor 200.

Patterns in the viewing data, browsing data and telephone calling dataindicative of the interests of a service recipient are identified usingcorrelation software 205. These interests are reflected in a subscriberaccount profile.

A profile associated with a subscriber account is created from the userdata and stored in a profile datastore 210. The profile for a subscriberaccount may also include user profiles that are deduced from patterns inthe viewing data, browsing data and/or telephone calling data indicativeof the interests of separate users. In addition to user data, a profilemay reflect subscriber billing information, demographic information, andother identification techniques used to generate a profile of asubscriber or group of subscribers.

Real time video content selection data is received 215. An advertisementis selected 220 using the real time video content selection data and asubscriber account profile. The advertisement is delivered to a selectedCPE, such as a set-top box, a computing device, or a telephone 225.

It will be understood by those skilled in the art that the presentinvention may be, without limitation, embodied in other specific formswithout departing from the scope of the invention disclosed and that theexamples and embodiments described herein are in all respectsillustrative and not restrictive. Those skilled in the art of thepresent invention will recognize that other embodiments using theconcepts described herein are also possible. Further, any reference toclaim elements in the singular, for example, using the articles “a,”“an,” or “the” is not to be construed as limiting the element to thesingular. Moreover, a reference to a specific time, time interval, andinstantiation of scripts or code segments is in all respectsillustrative and not limiting.

What is claimed is:
 1. A cross-platform advertisement delivery system comprising: a correlation processor configured to perform operations comprising: receiving viewing data relating to a viewing of video content delivered to a video termination device over a subscriber network; receiving at least one of browsing data relating to browsing an internet content delivered to a computing device over the subscriber network and telephone data relating to a telephone content delivered to a user telephone device over the subscriber network, wherein identifiers of the video termination device, the computing device and the telephone device are stored in association with a subscriber account; and processing the viewing data and the at least one of the browsing data and the telephone data to determine one or more interest factors, wherein each interest factor is a measure of a level of interest in a subject of interest relative to all other subjects of interest; and an advertisement selection processor, wherein the advertisement selection processor is configured with software executable instructions to cause the advertisement selection processor to perform operations comprising: selecting an advertisement for delivery to at least one of the video termination device, the computing device, and the telephone device, wherein the selection is made using the interest factor.
 2. The system of claim 1, wherein the correlation processor is further configured with software executable instructions to cause the correlation processor to perform operations comprising processing the viewing data and the at least one of the browsing data and the telephone data to determine an interest velocity factor for each of the subjects of interest, wherein the interest velocity factor is a measure of a rate of change of interest in the subject of interest at a point in time; and wherein the advertisement selection processor is further configured with software executable instructions to cause the advertisement selection processor to perform operations comprising selecting a different advertisement for delivery to at least one of the video termination device, the computing device, and the telephone device when the velocity factor exceeds a threshold value.
 3. The system of claim 1, wherein the correlation processor is further configured to perform operations comprising storing the interest factors in a subscriber account profile.
 4. The system of claim 3, wherein the correlation processor is further configured to perform operations comprising: processing the viewing data and the at least one of browsing data and telephone data to identify usage patterns indicative of two or more distinct users of the subscriber account; processing each usage pattern to determine one or more user interest factors for each of the two or more distinct users of the subscriber account, wherein each user interest factor is a measure of a level of interest of a particular distinct user of the subscriber account in a subject of interest relative to all other subjects of interest; and storing for each of the two or more distinct users of the subscriber account the one or more user interest factors in a user profile associated with the subscriber profile.
 5. The system of claim 4, wherein the process of selecting an ad for delivery to at least one of the video termination device, the computing device, and the telephone device comprises: selecting one of the two or more distinct users to receive an advertisement; selecting an advertisement for delivery to the selected user using the one or more user interest factors associated with the selected user.
 6. The system of claim 5, wherein: the correlation processor is further configured to perform operations comprising processing each usage pattern to determine one or more devices used by each of the two or more distinct users of the subscriber account; and the processor is further configured to perform operations comprising selecting one or more devices used by the selected user to receive the selected advertisement.
 7. The system of claim 5, wherein the correlation processor is further configured to perform operations comprising processing each usage pattern to determine a user interest velocity factor for each of the subjects of interest for each of the two or more distinct users of the subscriber account, wherein each user velocity factor is a measure of a rate of change of interest of a particular user in the subject of interest at a point in time; and wherein the advertisement selection processor is further configured to perform operations comprising selecting a different advertisement for delivery to the selected user when the velocity factor exceeds a threshold value.
 8. The system of claim 1, wherein the advertisement is delivered as video content or as non-video content.
 9. The system of claim 1, wherein the video termination device is selected from the group consisting of a standalone set top box (STB) and an STB incorporated into a cable-ready television.
 10. The system of claim 1, wherein the computing device is selected from the group consisting of a desktop computer, a laptop computer, a web-enabled personal digital assistant, and a web-enabled cell phone.
 11. A method for delivering advertisements in a multi-platform network, the method comprising: a correlation processor configured to perform operations comprising: receiving by a correlation processor viewing data relating to a viewing of video content delivered to a video termination device over a subscriber network; receiving by the correlation processor at least one of browsing data relating to browsing an internet content delivered to a computing device over the subscriber network and telephone data relating to a telephone content delivered to a user telephone device over the subscriber network, wherein identifiers of the video termination device, the computing device and the telephone device are stored in association with a subscriber account; and processing by the correlation processor the viewing data and the at least one of the browsing data and the telephone data to determine one or more interest factors, wherein each interest factor is a measure of a level of interest in a subject of interest relative to all other subjects of interest; and selecting by an advertisement processor an advertisement for delivery to at least one of the video termination device, the computing device, and the telephone device, wherein the selection is made using the interest factor.
 12. The method of claim 11 further comprising, processing by the correlation processor the viewing data and the at least one of the browsing data and the telephone data to determine an interest velocity factor for each of the subjects of interest, wherein the interest velocity factor is a measure of a rate of change of interest in the subject of interest at a point in time; and selecting by the advertisement processor a different advertisement for delivery to at least one of the video termination device, the computing device, and the telephone device when the velocity factor exceeds a threshold value.
 13. The method of claim 11 further comprising storing by the correlation processor the interest factors in a subscriber account profile.
 14. The method of claim 13 further comprising: processing by the correlation processor the viewing data and the at least one of browsing data and telephone data to identify usage patterns indicative of two or more distinct users of the subscriber account; processing by the correlation processor each usage pattern to determine one or more user interest factors for each of the two or more distinct users of the subscriber account, wherein each user interest factor is a measure of a level of interest of a particular distinct user of the subscriber account in a subject of interest relative to all other subjects of interest; and storing by the correlation processor for each of the two or more distinct users of the subscriber account the one or more user interest factors in a user profile associated with the subscriber profile.
 15. The method of claim 14, wherein selecting by the advertisement processor an ad for delivery to at least one of the video termination device, the computing device, and the telephone device comprises: selecting by the advertisement processor one of the two or more distinct users to receive an advertisement; selecting by the advertisement processor an advertisement for delivery to the selected user using the one or more user interest factors associated with the selected user.
 16. The method of claim 15 further comprising: processing by the correlation processor each usage pattern to determine one or more devices used by each of the two or more distinct users of the subscriber account; and selecting by the advertisement processor one or more devices used by the selected user to receive the selected advertisement.
 17. The method of claim 15 further comprising: processing by the correlation processor each usage pattern to determine a user interest velocity factor for each of the subjects of interest for each of the two or more distinct users of the subscriber account, wherein each user velocity factor is a measure of a rate of change of interest of a particular user in the subject of interest at a point in time; and selecting by the advertisement processor a different advertisement for delivery to the selected user when the velocity factor exceeds a threshold value.
 18. The method of claim 11, wherein the advertisement is delivered as video content or as non-video content.
 19. The method of claim 11, wherein the video termination device is selected from the group consisting of a standalone set top box (STB) and an STB incorporated into a cable-ready television.
 20. The method of claim 11, wherein the computing device is selected from the group consisting of a desktop computer, a laptop computer, a web-enabled personal digital assistant, and a web-enabled cell phone. 